Our new charging arrangements

We are making changes to the way in which we charge for connections to our networks. We need to follow new rules and legislation but, with your help, we have developed new charges that we hope meet all our customers’ needs.

We have done a lot of customer engagement already but we now want to hear your views on our final proposals.

Our proposed new charges have taken account of your views and industry initiatives:

In winter 2016 we commissioned market research to understand customers’ views on the services we provide to help us understand what we do well and what we needed to improve.

Following publication of Ofwat’s rules in December 2016, we carried out further market research in April/ May 2017 to understand what our customers want from a new charging regime. Our customer base is wide and diverse but this research revealed overwhelmingly that charges should be simple and transparent, fair and predictable, and that in general developers should pay for costs incurred.

Having developed our charges on the back of this research, we held bilateral meetings with developers, self-lay providers and NAVs in September/ October 2017 to understand better their views on our approach. At the same time, we published our customer engagement plan on our website and on Water UK’s website.

We took part in Water UK meetings to develop a quotation template that is consistent across the industry and which meets the needs of developers and self-lay providers.

Your views

We are now seeking your views on our charging proposals so that we can be assured that they meet your requirements.

Key dates

To comply with Ofwat’s timetable for publication of charges, we are asking you to give us your views no later than Sunday 31 December 2017. You can find a link to the questionnaire below.

We expect to publish our charges on 1 February 2018.

After that date we will adopt Water UK’s suggested transition arrangements until our new charges take effect on 1 April 2018.